Friday, 31 December 2010

To day offered great weather so it was to tempting not to go sport climbing in the sun even if the Ice conditions are unreal good. In the sun it was T shirt on 1400 meters. That's hard to beat given that some of the worlds best Ice climbing is less than 10 minutes away. "Blind Faith" a first ascent signed by Jeff Lowe 300 WI 6 looks like its in great condition, as well as the monster route Les "Racines du ciel" 300 m VI WI 6+ 6b A2... But to day was all about casual sport climbing in the sun, doing laps on a 40 meter 6c in winter friction boots...

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

A few Ice climbing pictures I shoot with my birth day present a Lumix LX5. I'm still playing around with it and trying to figure it out but so far I love it. I found this camera on http://ianparnellphotography.blogspot.com and thought it would be perfect for what I do so I put it on top of my wish list and voila lets hope I will be better at getting good quality shoots from my trips. This pictures was from a route we thought was unclimbed but it turned out to be the 3rd ascent (the FA was done Jan 2010). Route: 250 meters III 5a WI5+. I think we will be back and try the unclimbed ice tubes on the far right in the last picture in this post.

Friday, 17 December 2010

Sadly the HTML thing on the blog is fucked up and no links work. I'm sorry for that and I'm trying to fix it.

With out taking any credit from any one or diminishing any efforts I think its fair to say that 2010 will not go down in the history books as one of the most productive years for cutting edge alpinism. How ever a few bright stars are shining stronger than ever. This is no ranking of efforts or in any way a complete list of outstanding efforts. Its just climbs and events I think are worth mentioning one more time in this brief summary of 2010.

1. Colin Haley is the first person I like to feature. It would be almost rude not to start out this summary with out starting by mentioning Colin. The frenzy of Colins climbing is truly outstanding and inspiring. His raid in Alaska this spring with Bjørn-Eivind Årtun was all but ordinary. They did a simul solo of Cassin Ridge (Denai) in 17 to the top. Then the team pulled off a huge First Ascent on the South West Face of Foraker. They named the new route Dracula. During the summer Colin and Mikey Schaefer made a significant ascent of the Diabolo Traverse on Devils Thumb (on the BC-Alaska border). Colin also managed to go to Yosemite and in November he pulled off a Solo ascent of Cerro Standhardt via the EXOCET Route. Productivity numbers are up!

Photos Colin Haley

http://colinhaley.blogspot.com

2. Last years Piolet d'Or winners (with Jed Brown) Kyle Dempster and Bruce Normand teamed up for a visit to western China. The result has been covered extensively in all major climbing media. I'm sure there new route on Mt.Edgar is a sure bet for an other Piolet d'Or nomination. If for some political or other bizarre reason this climb is not nominated for a Piolet d'Or the event will lose all its credibility once again. This will be interesting to follow. I once again lift my hat for my friends!

I guess this is a clear candidate for the Piolet d'Or. Looks like great climbing and executed in great style. This French team is no doubt composed by some strong guys. Mathieu Maynadier, Sebastien Ratel, Mathieu Détrie and Maxime Belleville. Look at the cool video!

This ascent looks hard and like huge undertaking. Only thing I'm not sure of is how it was climbed. Looking at the pictures it looks like they used some kind of capsule style with aid and short fixing. But non the less it looks great and it was done in winter

Ukrainians Marina Kopteva (leader) and Anna Yasinskaya, teaming up with Russian Galina Chibitok summited Amin Brakk after climbing its west face via the Czech Express route (A3-А4 27 VI 70?), according to RussianClimb.com. A repeat but a great effort and one of few interesting ascents in Pakistan during 2010.

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

I will try to list some ascents I think are some of the best efforts in the greater ranges during 2010. Any "nominations" drop me a line. Having some issues with the HTML coding on this post will put it up ASAP its fixed.